intergenerational learning: an effective strategy for work

Cedefop: “Designing, implementing and supporting ef fective work-based learning”[email protected]

Intergenerational learning: An effective strategy for work-based learning in CVET

ROPES Donald and YPSILANTI Antonia

InHolland University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands

South East European Research Center, Thessaloniki, Greece

Cedefop: “Designing, implementing and supporting effective work-based learning”[email protected]

Introduction

• Work-based learning (WBL) is becoming increasingly important to enterprises because of decreased training budgetsdecreased training budgets as well as the realization that effective CVET is embedded in the workplace itself

• CVET is important for all age groups including those entering (limited experience) or leaving the market (knowledge loss)


Introduction

• Forecasts point to huge gaps in

employment because of the looming

baby-boomer retirements and a lack of

younger employees to replace older ones (European Commission, 2010).

• Knowledge-intensive organizations, rely

on human capital for sustained

competitive advantage (Coleman, 1988)

through CVET


Early leaving from education is decreasing

Figure 2: Early leavers from education and training, EU-27, 2000–2012(% of population aged 18 to 24 with at most lower secondary education and not in further education or training)Source: Eurostat online data code (t2020_40) (*) Data for 2000 and 2001 are estimates; break in series in 2003; provisional data for 2012; Europe 2020 target: under 10 %.


Public Expenditure for CVET

• Discrepancies in the expenditure for CVET

depending on countries’ general

educational attainment level, percentage

of qualified people and employees’

attitudes towards lifelong learning (e.g., in

Greece the public expenditure dropped

from 2007 to 2009 over 20%)

Source: Cedefop’s calculation, based on Eurostat, labour market policy database.


Participation in CVET

• Low participation in training and development is problematic for any organization that relies heavily on human capital as means of production, because training and development of workers has a directinfluence on sustained competitive advantage (Wright et al., 1994).

• According to some reports, 40 percent of employees between the ages of 25-34 in European workorganizations took part in some form of education and training, while for the 55-64 year age group, considered here to be “older workers”, participation was less than 12% (EQUAL, 2007; European Commission, 2007).


Why low participation of older workers?

• Often unwilling to invest in

themselves (close to retirement)

• Poorly designed training

• Lack of initiatives

• Failure to motivate them

• Negative stereotypes against

older workers


Intergenerational Learning

• Intergenerational learning is an interactive

process that takes place between

different generations resulting in the

acquisition of new knowledge, skills and

values (Ropes, 2013)

• Intergenerational learning in organizations

posits that learning is beneficial to both

the individual and the organization (Ropes, 2013)


Silver Project

Developed a Toolkit to implement intergenerational learning interventions for organizations.

The toolkit was tested in 47 organizations in 6 countries in 4 different business sectors (Health Care, Education, ICT, SME’s)

Website: www.intergenerationallearning.eu


Purpose

The toolkit was designed to:

• Increase older workers’ employability and CVET, including learning to learn, learning to innovate and learning to build knowledge collaboratively with different generations.

• Contribute to younger workers’ CVET

• Help increase innovation in organizations.

• Assure critical organizational knowledge retention and reuse.

• Provide a way for cost-effective CVET to older and younger employees


Designing the toolkit

• Desk-research

• Interviews

– 19 interviews were held in organizations

located in Finland, Greece, Romania and The

Netherlands

– HR professionals, HR trainers, consultants and

managers dealing with an age-diverse

workforce


IGL interventions

• From the desk research and interviews we

discovered five distinct categories of

programs for intergenerational learning;

• mentoring,

• mixed-age teams

• workshops/trainings

• mixed-management

• job-rotation programs


Results

PROGRAM TYPICAL PROBLEMS

ADDRESSED

TYPICAL OUTCOMES CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

Mentoring

(24 examples)

Knowledge loss

Ageing workforce

Experts leaving

Knowledge/skill transfer and

building

New employee learning/

training/support

Employability

Awareness of problem

Management support

Mentor training

Participant selection

Mixed-age teams

(14 examples)

Demographic change

Customer needs

Knowledge loss

Knowledge/skill transfer and

building

Managing age-diversity

Establishing a more

heterogeneous

workforce structure

Innovation


Management support

Process facilitation

Training/workshops (11

examples)

Age diversity

Manage demographic change

Knowledge transfer

Improved social capital

Keep older workers in service


Standard quality measures


The toolkit

• The Stakeholder Awareness Program (StAP)

• DIGL or ‘Doing IGL ’ Tools

• GIGL, Develop a web-based game for practicing

IGL


Pilots

• Pilots were run in ICT (Finland), Higher Education

(Romania), Health Care (Greece), Industry (UK),

Knowledge Intensive Sector (Germany) and

Public Service (The Netherlands). In total the

DIGL, or parts thereof, was tested in 24

organizations.

• Due to reasons of privacy, the organizations

cannot be listed here.


DIGL tool


Intervention Success factors Barriers

Intergenerational

mentoring

•Older people enjoy teaching younger people

•Younger people gain valuable skills

•Financial rewards for mentors increases motivation

•Useful for managerial/organizational skills

•Open corporate culture

•Time-consuming

•Requires resources

•Requires support for mentors

Intergenerational

Trainings and

Workshops

•Reduces mobility

•Flexible for trainer

•Adaptive to specific needs of the organization

•Best used in medium sized groups (8-10 people)

•Raise awareness

•Elevates negative stereotypes

•A good facilitator is a key to the success of the tool

•Requires qualified trainers

•Time pressure is always an

important barrier

Game-based

learning

•Fun and enjoyable

•Short duration (10-15 minutes)

•Good at raising awareness

•Experiential learning (role playing)

•Open corporate culture

•Technical issues

•Requires web-connection


Discussion

• Learning to learn (Meta-competences)

• Vocational competences are related to the ability

to perform a task while meta-competences are

higher-level cognitive processes such as critical

reflection, creative thinking and adapting to change

in the work organization

• Older workers exhibit an inability to change along

with the organization

• IGL programs should be designed for helping older

workers increase their capacities to change and

develop


Discussion

• IGL should be seen as a specific type of social learningbetween and among generations that takes place in the natural activity system of the workplace, where employees participate regularly in organizational group activities such as team meetings, formal and informal discussions, etc.

• Often formal training is demotivating for older workers, as it does not consider their specific learning styles or motivations for learning.

• An important mechanism behind IGL is social capital, which is also product of social interaction between generations and decreases knowledge exchange barriers such as negative stereotypes.


Impact Analysis of SILVER


Final Comments

• Handbook for trainers (essential for supporting the

supporters)

• We found no sectorial or cultural differences in the pilot

(the tool is very much applicable to any business

sector/country)

• The tool has been tested in organizations that varied in size

(50 workers-2000 workers)

• The tool can be used in subgroups within an organization

• The tool was co-created with companies to reduce the gap

between research and practice

• The tool is very flexible, it has been used by each trainer

differently depending on the needs of the organization.

Cedefop: “Designing, implementing and supporting ef fective work-based learning”[email protected]

Thank you for your attention!Questions/Comments

ROPES Donald and YPSILANTI Antonia

InHolland University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands

South East European Research Center, Thessaloniki, Greece

intergenerational learning: an effective strategy for work

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